Prince George | BakerTwin's Blog

Article: Bakertwins lend fame to children’s charity

JUNE 21, 2013

FRANK PEEBLES
CITIZEN STAFF
FPEEBLES@PGCITIZEN.CA
Two of the region’s most famous faces in pop culture are leading the campaign to put laptops in the hands of underprivileged children.

They may split their residency now between Los Angeles and Vancouver, and travel to film sets and photo shoots and runway shows all over the world, but twin sisters Shauna and Shannon Baker are nonetheless trying to knock down hurdles for the people growing up back in their home town and places just like it.

The Baker twins are involved in several movie and television projects but they never disclaim their heritage. Home and family are still rooted in the Stellat’en First Nation on the Stellako Reserve at Fraser Lake.

“We were born in Prince George but we were raised in Fraser Lake,” Shauna said. “We moved around a lot. We lived in Merritt and Nanaimo too, but for the most part we always moved back to Fraser Lake.”

Shannon also has a work connection to the Yekooche First Nation near Fort St. James. One of her first adult jobs was teaching computers in that remote community, which had only one computer and one phone line to use. She and Shauna were inspired by the determination of the people there to learn, even in those conditions. Now, years later, they see their little sister with her own laptop, and understood all the more how important the tools of education are, especially for those who live in rural areas or financially thin households.

Consequently, the Baker twins have leant their fame to a nationwide charity campaign to provide under-financed children with their own personal computer. It is called One Laptop Per Child-Canada. The program has been underway for years in Third World countries, and its foray into Canada is championed by celebrated industrialist and former MP Belinda Stronach.

It includes a TV/YouTube commercial celebrating the work already done, in the hopes of generating more funds for more computers. The first faces seen in the public service announcement are Shauna and Shannon Baker.

“Aboriginal youth are the fastest growing demographic in Canada,” the twins tell the camera.

They are joined in the ad by other Canadian celebrities like actor/author Dakota House, actor Adam Beach, singer/songwriter Cory Lee, and some non-Canadians including actor David Henrie, rock band Bright Light Social Hour, even rock superstar Gene Simmons of Kiss who tells the audience “with a computer, you can create, play, access the global community.”

Close to 4,000 laptops have already been distributed in Canada through the One Laptop Per Child-Canada program. The computers are specially designed with an extra-durable frame, screens that remain legible even in bright sun, and have a solar and wind-up power source when plug-ins are scarce.

“You can give it to 10 year olds and studies with Third World kids show that within 10 minutes they are figuring it out,” said the sisters. “It is a tool they understand. It is going to help so many kids and so many communities. These kids will bring it home and teach their mother or father, or their younger siblings. We have a lot of native communities living like Third World countries. If [Shannon] didn’t take that job at Yekooche, we wouldn’t have known, either, that those communities existed. We are trying to give them the same opportunities that kids everywhere have.”

For more information on how to contribute or how to access these services, visit http://www.olpccanada.com.